Following Nollywood actress Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde’s outcry against child marriage last Saturday, it appears that stakeholders in the entertainment industry in Nigeria are determined to ensure that members of the Senate do not succeed in their plan to legitimise it.

Just before she received an award from the Silverbird Group at the 2013 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant in Yenagoa, the actress had spoken out against the move in the Senate to legally endorse child marriage in the country.

Even as she was being showered with praises on social media for taking such a bold stand, foremost filmmaker and cinematographer, Tunde Kelani and Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti took turns to lend their voices to the raging debate on the issue.

Kelani, expressed shock that such a topic should even be considered for debate on the floor of the Senate. “This is, in fact, a very shocking and embarrassing development. I am a Yoruba man and it is not common among my people. Not even once have I seen or heard that girl of 13 years was given out in marriage to a man old enough to be her father. What the Senate should be talking about is not how to turn little girls into wives prematurely, but how to give them quality education,” he said, in a telephone interview with our correspondent.

Accusing the former Governor Ahmed Yerima of Zamfara State for interpreting the Islamic scriptures to suit his selfish purpose, the celebrated filmmaker added, “We have Muslims in Yorubaland. Why are – the Yerimas – they not thinking of educating their young daughters instead of giving them out in marriage? Those Senators ought to realise that female children are also an investment for the future. They are entitled to good education and not early marriage.”

In her reaction, Yeni wondered how a sane man would sleep with an underage girl and still claim that it was right. She urged Nigerians to rise up to fight the attempt to legalise child marriage, “The people should take a definite stand against child marriage. If they continue to keep quiet, they will be taken for granted. The lawmakers should be made to understand that we voted them into power and they must listen to us.” She said.